


She Was The World

by krypticgametress



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alya Césaire is a Bad Friend, Angst, Bullying, Depressed Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Established Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, F/M, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Heartache, Hurt No Comfort, Identity Reveal, Lila Rossi's Lies Are Exposed, Minor Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe, No Lila Rossi Redemption, Post-Reveal Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Regret, Snapchat, Suicide, The Author Wants You to Suffer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-15 06:21:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28808769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/krypticgametress/pseuds/krypticgametress
Summary: Adrien woke up on a sunny morning in the spring. Marinette didn’t.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe
Comments: 20
Kudos: 282





	She Was The World

**Author's Note:**

> tw: su//cide, sh, bullying, grief.
> 
> Felt like writing something a bit more angsty, so you get to suffer.

Adrien Agreste woke up on a sunny morning in the spring. He heard the quiet chatting of Plagg with an unfamiliar voice, which made him sit up quickly in bed. Had someone found him? Was his identity exposed? Ladybug was going to kill him.

He looked around for his kwami, his eyes landing first on his bedside table, where Plagg usually slept in a drawer. On top of it was a familiar black box. And floating above it was a red and black kwami. Tikki and Plagg looked over at him, only just noticing he was awake.

“Tikki? Did Marinette drop you off?” Adrien asked, recalling his time as Mister Bug and using the Ladybug Miraculous. He opened the box and along with the earrings, there was a small scrap of paper with the number “0819” written on it. Adrien removed the earrings from the box and tucked it back into the drawer, along with the paper.

“Yes, but I don’t know why. She seemed really upset and wouldn’t talk to me, she just said goodbye and left the earrings here.” Tikki seemed really worried, and Adrien hurriedly put the earrings on. His ears weren’t pierced, but the miraculous sensed that, and turned into a pair of clip-ons. He snapped them on, and responded to Tikki.

“I’ll pull her aside and talk to her at school. She’s been having a rough time lately, but I didn’t think she’d take a break from being Ladybug!” Adrien made haste and got ready, dressing up and grabbing his bag before going for breakfast.

Nathalie told him about today’s schedule, but he zoned her out, picking at his breakfast. She’d send all of it to him by email anyways. 

He was thinking about Marinette. Ladybug was strong- she’d never surrender her Miraculous just like that. Maybe she was going on vacation and had to leave her Miraculous so he could purify the akumas and use the Cure. But Tikki had said she was upset! Maybe it was an emergency, and she had to leave for a funeral or something?

Yeah, that seemed to be the most likely scenario. There was a death in the family and the Dupain-Chengs had to leave urgently, so Marinette gave him the Miraculous in the meantime.

Which means she wouldn’t be at school.

In the car, he tried to call her. No answer. Adrien rationalized it by saying she was on a plane or on the road somewhere where she had no service. When he got to school, everything seemed normal. Except, Marinette wasn’t in class. 

He had gotten to class right as the bell rang, and didn’t have time to talk to anyone. When the lunch bell rang, he made a beeline to his friends.

He approached Lila, Nino, and Alya, who were all chatting at their usual table. 

Lila seemed to have mellowed out, and Marinette hadn’t said anything about her bothering her since she was almost expelled. That’s good. It meant Lila took to heart what he’d said about leaving her alone. Hopefully, this meant that soon, everything could go back to normal at their school.

“Hey guys!” He greeted them. Alya smiled at him and he and Nino did a secret handshake.

“Adrien!” Lila grabbed his arm and hugged it, nuzzling into the side of his chest. It sent chills through his body every time she touched him without his permission, but he couldn’t say anything. 

He had long suspected that she had struck some sort of deal with his father. That’s why she was allowed to bypass rules that even his oldest and previously most-approved-of friend, Chloe. She could come over whenever she pleased (usually with some terrible excuse), she could crash his photoshoots, and she was constantly harassing him. Still, he had hope that maybe she’d change. That hope was shrinking by the minute, though.

“I can’t wait for our photoshoot today, I heard that the outfits we’re wearing are gonna be soo cute!” Lila gushed. Adrien wriggled out of her grasp, and awkwardly laughed.

“Yeah, definitely. Have any of you heard from Marinette?”

“No, she’s absent as usual. That girl needs to get her priorities straight!” Alya rolled her eyes and seemed to have said it in a joking way, but something felt wrong about it to Adrien. It didn’t feel right for her to say something like that behind Marinette’s back, especially since they’d been on such rocky territory.

“Adrien, didn’t you hear what happened yesterday?” Nino asked.

“No, what?” Marinette had probably told Alya that she was leaving, who told Nino. He, of course, already knew that, but couldn’t say anything yet because then he’d have to tell them about the Miraculous, which would expose their identities.

“I ended things with that girl, that's what.” Alya said for him. What? “Lila came to me yesterday in tears! She said Marinette had been cyberbullying her for ages, and even said that she’s slapped her before! I knew she had some issues with Lila, but I didn’t think it was that bad.”

Adrien was in shock. How could Alya just  _ believe _ Lila without any proof, especially since Marinette was her best friend? Before he could say anything, Lila began to speak with tears in her eyes.

“Oh Adrien, it’s been so horrible! I thought it would eventually all be okay since I’d tried to smooth things over so many times, but ever since she pushed me down the stairs she’s been relentless,” She hugged him around the waist and buried her face in his chest, “I finally worked up the courage to tell Alya yesterday, and she told Marinette off for me. I’m so glad it’s finally over!”

Adrien didn’t say anything for fear that he’d snap at them. He shoved Lila away and left the school, ignoring anything they had to say. He had to talk to Marinette.

* * *

It was 11 at night on Sunday, and Marinette was sitting on a park bench. She was snuggled in a warm jacket, and the air was cold and crisp. Her breath formed a cloud everytime she exhaled. She focused on it, her mind strangely calm and empty. Like usual.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket. She checked, and surprisingly, it wasn’t a Snapchat notification. Which meant it wasn’t Lila.

It was Alya. She opened the text message, and her chest tightened.

“Marinette, are you okay? Is it Lila again?” Tikki floated out of her pocket. Marinette had been different lately. 

In public, she acted like she usually did, the happy girl that she had always been, or the strong and fearless hero that protected Paris. In private though, she was the opposite. 

She was quiet. 

She stayed in her room, not talking to her parents unless prompted. She cried. A lot. She didn’t do the things she used to love, like sewing or looking at pictures of Adrien. In fact, she hardly did anything but write in her diary and check her phone. She’d even been neglecting her homework, something the studious girl had never done before.

Tikki suspected it was because of all the horrible messages that Lila had been sending her. About 10 times a day, Marinette’s phone would buzz. At first, the messages were mild, harmless, and Marinette didn’t let it get to her. But they got worse.

**_You’ll never amount to anything._ **

**_Everybody hates you._ **

**_You have no friends left._ **

**_Nobody trusts you._ **

**_Why don’t you just kill yourself already?_ **

**_Do us all a favour and disappear._ **

**_Hey, what’s with the sweaters all the time? Hiding something?_ **

**_I wonder if you’d die if you jumped into the Seine._ **

**_Alya will never be your friend again._ **

**_You are alone in the world._ **

**_Even your parents don’t believe you._ **

**_You are worthless._ **

Tikki tried to push her to tell someone, to get help, to put a stop to everything. But Marinette would remind her that they were taking the high road, and eventually ordered her to stop asking about it completely. Marinette and Tikki’s relationship had never been one of master and kwami, but she had no choice but to obey.

Marinette turned her phone off before Tikki could see what the message was this time, which worried her even more. Marinette sat there for a few minutes, not moving. The only indication that she was still alive was the frosty mist that formed in front of her every few seconds.

“Tikki, spots on.” Her voice cracked, and she transformed into Ladybug, swinging towards her rooftop balcony.

She landed lightly, not wanting to wake anyone in her house up. It would be better if she went unnoticed.

She said the detransformation phrase quietly, and climbed down the ladder, ignoring Tikki’s pleas to know what was going on. She dug around in her closet until she found the round black and red box that was buried under her clothes.

She walked over to her bed, and took out the Miracle Box. Tikki’s questions only became more frantic, but Marinette couldn’t hear her. Everything was fuzzy, and she felt numb to her core. She had only one goal in mind.

She opened the box and put the Mouse Miraculous around her neck. Mullo appeared, and her smile faded when she felt the heavy atmosphere in the room. 

Wordlessly, Marinette took off her earrings and put them in their box, and with a final, urgent “Marinette!” from Tikki, Marinette closed the box and Tikki disappeared.

“Mullo, get squeaky,” she said plainly. She put the box into her pocket and, climbing onto the roof, looked out over the city. It was the middle of the night by now, and Multimouse ran through the city, using her jump rope tail to travel across town. 

When she landed on Adrien Agreste’s windowsill, she felt the same pain in her chest. She was used to it by then, but as she stood over Adrien and stared at his sleeping form, she found it hard to breathe.

She clamped a hand over her mouth to stop her from sobbing, but she couldn’t stop the tears from spilling from her eyes. She went over to his desk and ripped a piece of paper from his open notebook, writing the password to a locked album in her camera on it. It was her birthday, too, so if he happened to lose it, then someone would eventually guess it anyway. 

She opened the box and placed the paper in, and Tikki reappeared.

“Marinette--”

“Goodbye, Tikki.” She nuzzled the kwami against her cheek and kissed her forehead, then closed the box. She was gone, and the only sound was Adrien’s breathing, as quiet as a whisper.

She kissed Adrien lightly, and brushed the hair out of his eyes. He turned over in bed, deeply asleep, and she escaped through the window.

=

Upon landing in her room, she ripped off the Mouse Miraculous and closed it in the Miracle Box, which was still open on her bed.

She lined up the things she needed on her desk. Diary. Camera. Miracle Box. Paper.

She went to grab the last thing she needed from her parent’s bathroom. She tried not to look at them when she crept through their room, focusing on staying quiet, but on her way out of their connected bathroom she accidentally saw them, and couldn’t look away. They looked so peaceful and happy, and a part of her told her she was selfish for doing this. 

Then, the part of her that had gotten very loud lately reminded her that they’d be happier without her, and that she was better off dead. The voice sounded an awful lot like Lila.

She went to her room and wrote her note. It took her several pieces of paper, but she did it, and by the time she was done she could barely see through the tears collecting in her eyes.

It was around 3 in the morning. They wouldn’t notice until lunch, at least.

She filled a glass of water at her vanity and poured all of her father’s blood pressure medication into her hand.

After swallowing everything, she sat down on her chaise.

“ I, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, hereby relinquish the Miracle Box and name Chat Noir the new Guardian.” 

The box floated up and glowed, transforming into a black rectangular box with green handles.

Marinette’s memory was erased, and she  fell asleep for the last time.

* * *

“Hi, Mdm Cheng!” Adrien greeted. He pretended not to be concerned-- at first he thought that Marinette was out of town, but the fact that it was Alya who had made her upset and that her mother was still here worried him.

“Adrien, hello! Would you like some fresh croissants?”

“That would be lovely, but I was wondering if I could talk to Marinette?”

“She isn’t at school?” Her mother frowned, and Tom came up beside his wife, equally dismayed. “I think I’ll come with you. She’s been missing a lot of school. I’m worried about her.”

The trio made their way up the stairs, and Sabine was the one to knock on her daughter’s door.

“Marinette?” No response. She knocked again. “Marinette! Adrien is here. Can we come in?”

After a few seconds of no response, she pushed open the trapdoor and let Adrien up.

“Marinette?” Adrien saw her asleep on her chaise. “Oh, she must have slept in.”

“She’s always doing that,” Tom laughed, climbing up and helping his wife do the same, “Wake her up, she wouldn’t want to miss all her classes.”

Marinette’s skin looked pale. Was she sick? Maybe she stayed home on purpose.

Adrien shook her by the shoulder.

“Marinette?” 

Tom picked up a stack of paper on her desk.

“Marinette!” Adrien shook her harder, and then felt her cheek. She was cold to the touch. He turned to her mother, who made her way over to the chaise with a look of alarm in her face.

“Call an ambulance! Please, Marinette, wake up!”

* * *

Adrien walked into school an hour later, distraught. Through tears, the Dupain-Chengs had offered to call and explain the situation, but he refused. 

He slammed open the door to the classroom and a displeased “Mr Agreste!” came from Ms Bustier, but he ignored her in favour of walking up to Lila’s desk.

“She’s dead.” He said in a dull tone. The rest of the class seemed confused, but after a few seconds, horror washed over her face.

“Adrien, what are you talking about?” Alya asked. He didn’t break eye contact with Lila when he answered.

“Marinette is dead. And it’s Lila’s fault.”

An eerie silence set over the classroom. 

“She killed herself last night. After Lila was done destroying her life, she couldn’t take it.”

“Are you messing with us right now, dude? Not cool.” Nino said.

“Seriously? This isn’t funny Adrien!” Alya exclaimed.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about Adrien.” Lila stammered, slowly rising to her feet. Looking at her face as she lied and lied and lied made something inside of Adrien snap. He slapped her with the back of his hand and she fell back into her seat. 

“Adrien Agreste!” Ms. Bustier finally spoke up, “We do not hit! Now, what are you talking about?”

“Marinette is dead. She’s dead because Lila is a pathological liar. She’s dead because her long time friends,” He looked around the classroom at the aghast faces of the traitors, “decided that empty promises were better than years of friendship. She’s dead because… because I couldn’t protect her.” Adrien’s voice cracked and he felt his resolve crumble just a bit. But he was on the warpath, he couldn’t stop.

“You killed her, Lila. I saw the messages on her phone. You might have thought you were being sneaky, using a program that deleted everything without a trace, but Marinette took photos. She was strong, fearless, so self-confident and happy. She protected Paris and made those around her happy and was an incredible girl, but you, Lila Rossi… You destroyed her. She was depressed. She was hurting herself. You’re the reason she’s  **_dead_ ** .”

Adrien’s words took a second to sink it, but once they did Alya screamed and Rose fainted, and a good majority of the class burst into tears.

“What is he talking about, Lila? Is it true? Were you bullying Marinette?” Alya interrogated, then turned to Adrien, “Adrien, please tell me it’s not true. Please, please, please,” she begged him, fat tears rolling down her face. He pulled her into a hug, and whispered into her hair, “I’m sorry. I’m so so sorry.” He didn’t have any tears left to cry, so he just hugged her as she shook. Suddenly, she broke free from his hold.

“You!” She screamed, pointing at Lila, “I never should have trusted you!” She lunged at her, pulling her to the ground and hitting her, yanking out chunks of her hair out as the Italian tried to push her off. The rest of the class watched, but nobody made a move to stop her because they all felt exactly the same.

When Ms. Bustier finally pulled her off of her, Lila had 2 black eyes, a busted lip, and was missing chunks of hair. 

“What have you done, Lila?” She asked, barely containing her own rage. Marinette was under her care. It was her duty to protect her students, and one of them had been suffering for a long time. She had failed, and one of her dearest students was dead because of it. 

Alya was shaking with rage, but when she was forced to stop hitting Lila, a tsunami of sadness washed over her. When Ms. Bustier let go over her, she fell to her knees and sobbed loudly into her hands. Marinette was gone. Her best friend was gone. Could she even call herself Marinette’s best friend? For the past few months, they had barely talked. Lila seemed so innocent, and Marinette was so insistent on her being a liar that it got easier to just block her out rather than deal. And last night was the night she sent that message.

She felt herself spiraling into a panic attack. It was her fault. Marinette— sweet, supportive Marinette who had never hurt a fly— was gone. Because of her. She had betrayed her, had left her alone. She didn’t listen, and Marinette had paid the price. 

Marinette was dead. 

* * *

It had been 6 months. After her parents read her diary, Ladybug’s identity had been revealed to the public, and the news of her death had caused a public uproar. There were parades in the streets, eulogies in the news, and copycat suicides in the city. People were scared- who was going to protect them now? They were comforted by the emergence of a superhero team, led by Chat Noir, but her sudden death shook the city to its core. 

=

Adrien still cried himself to sleep every night. Even though he was so grateful for Carapace, Pegasus, Queen Bee and Ryuuko, every time he fought a villain without her, it felt like something was missing. He felt like an impostor, wearing her miraculous and playing her role. He had 3 choices: Give the Ladybug Miraculous to someone else, relinquish the Miracle Box and both Miraculous to someone else, or wear it himself and find a new Chat Noir. Giving it up would dishonor her legacy, and he couldn’t bear the thought of someone else becoming Ladybug. Nobody could ever replace her. So he chose to wear it himself, because at least then, he wouldn’t have to see someone else wearing the suit. Luka became the new Serpent-Noir, and wore both the Snake and the Cat Miraculous. He revealed himself to the team, so he and Plagg still talked often. Secrets were like lies, and he couldn't stand liars.

Every time he saw her empty desk or her abandoned locker he missed her. Every time he looked at the miracle box, or saw a tribute to Ladybug, he felt like he was going to die. He had lost the love of his life, and blamed himself every minute. He should never have backed down from Lila. He should have exposed her and dealt with the after effects. He’d have done anything if he’d had known it would end like this. 

Oddly enough, there had been fewer akumas to deal with lately. It seemed that Hawkmoth, no matter how evil he was, seemed to sympathize with the tragic death of a child, even if she was his arch-nemesis. Although there was an abundance of negative emotion in Paris, he never, not even once, had akumatized someone who was grieving Marinette’s death, and as much as he wanted to destroy Hawkmoth, he appreciated him leaving them alone and instead going for trivial things, like breakups and upset children.

Even though things had been easier lately, with the simple villains and the extra help, Marinette had been the light of his life, and stumbling around in the dark was hopelessly terrifying.

=

Alya couldn’t look in the mirror anymore. She betrayed her best friend, her  _ best friend _ **_,_ ** for a dirty liar. She could pass the blame off to Lila, like many of her classmates had done, but in her heart she knew it wasn’t true. Lila was just the catalyst. It was the rest of them that had turned their backs on her when she needed it most, and when Alya turned her back on her, she’d felt like she had lost everything. And it was Alya’s fault, because she wasn’t there for her.

She felt so angry, all the time. Before Lila had returned to Italy to be tried for criminal harassment (as a child, her charges should’ve been less intense, but the people couldn’t forgive her for driving their saviour to suicide), Alya had lost it on several occasions. She’d even pushed Lila down the stairs, and then ran off crying because she remembered how Marinette had been accused of doing the same, and nobody had believed her defence.

Even though Lila was gone, she found herself getting irrationally angry at her little sisters, who wanted to distract her but ended up bugging her, and Nora, who'd check up on her a bit too often, and her parents, who would dote on her every need but never actually say anything about what had happened. 

It was all so unfair, and she wished that she had Marinette to help her through it all.

=

Sabine Cheng had lost her parents years ago. She had dealt with that grief, and it was difficult, but it was nothing compared to losing her only child to something so preventable. 

She had a box in the kitchen. She’d walk around the house, and for a moment, only a moment, she’d forget that Marinette wasn’t upstairs sewing, or out with her friends, or at school. Then she’d see something-- Marinette’s favourite mug when she opened a cabinet. Her baby picture, framed on the wall. A sweater she’d made her for Mother’s Day hanging in her closet -- and it would all come back to her, and she’d cry for hours again. 

And the thing would go in the box, so she could have a few more moments where everything was okay.

=

Tom Dupain tried to distract himself. He threw himself into work, and the bakery was getting more commissions than ever once they found out that they were the parents of the late superhero. This helped, as long as he ignored the looks of pity and the comforting words. At first, reporters had swarmed the place, but once Chat Noir had made it very clear that whoever bothered them might find themselves on the wrong end of a Cataclysm, they backed off, if you ignore the occasional sneaked photo.

Tom made macarons constantly, and supplied them free of charge to Cocci-Noir, who was originally Chat Noir but took on the Ladybug Miraculous after his daughter passed. When they read her diary, she’d talked about how she loved making macarons for her kwami, who devoured them with equal enthusiasm. He took up the tradition, but made exclusively red macarons with black filling. He kept photos of her all over the bakery, which made his wife stay hidden in the kitchen. Looking at them made him very upset, but it was different than just thinking about her. If he could see her smiling in the pictures, happy and carefree, he also remembered that she had lived a good life, and she had helped so many people. He just wished she was there with him. 

He would have done anything to have her back. If he had known, he’d have defended her until the end of time. He would’ve made sure that Lila got what she deserved. Hell, he’d even let her drop out of school and let her work with him all day. Anything, anything at all. But he didn’t know, and he was too late.

=

Marinette had been the glue that held Paris together, and now that she was gone, their world was falling apart at the seams.


End file.
